Experimental Investigations of Influence of Halloysite Nanotube on Mechanical and Chemical Resistance Properties of Glass Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Nano Composites

Abstract

<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family: " times="" new="" roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";mso-bidi-font-family:="" mangal;background:white;mso-ansi-language:en-gb;mso-fareast-language:en-us;="" mso-bidi-language:hi"="" lang="EN-GB">In this paper bi-directionally woven E-glass fabric/epoxy nanocomposite with different loading of halloysite nanotube (EP/GF/HNT) were made by hand layup followed by compression molding processes. Effectiveness of HNT addition on mechanical properties of the glass fiber reinforced epoxy nanocomposites were investigated by performing tensile and flexural property analysis as per ASTM standards. The results show that the addition of HNT significantly improved the mechanical properties compared with unfilled epoxy/glass fiber (EP/GF) composites and the maximum improvements in the properties were obtained at 4wt% addition of HNT. A further increase in the HNT content deteriorates the mechanical behaviour. The XRD, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to investigate the reinforcement mechanism and dispersion states of HNT in the nano composite. The results indicate that the compatibility between glass fiber and epoxy were obviously enhanced by the addition of HNT in the EP/GF composites. The chemical resistance properties EP/GF/HNT nanocomposites were also studied by using various chemical regents. It was found that all the composites are resistant to almost all the chemicals used.</span>